Seven detained for attack on Komnas HAM office
Seven detained for attack on Komnas HAM office
Rendi A. Witular and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Seven members of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) were in
police custody on Friday in connection with the attack an Wardah
Havidz, chairwoman of the Urban Poverty Consortium (UPC) and
dozens of eviction victims at the National Commission on Human
Rights (Komnas HAM) here on Thursday.
The attack seriously injured 10 people, including a four-year-
old boy, and left 37 others slightly injured.
Wardah and the victims of evictions conducted by the City
Public Order Agency, were in the process of reporting the city
administration for violating the ruling of the Central Jakarta
District Court on March 21 in favor of the victims.
The court ordered the administration to stop evicting local
residents without following proper procedure.
The attack conducted by FBR was the culmination of their
threats against Wardah.
Earlier this month, armed with machetes and sticks, they
chased away UPC activists who had been staging a rally against
Governor Sutiyoso. They also threatened to beat Wardah.
Yet the police refused to take any action while Sutiyoso
turned a blind eye toward the violence, and claimed he knew
nothing about the group.
Head of the city police detective division, Sr. Comr. Bambamg
Hendarso Danuri said on Friday that the police questioned nine
members of FBR as suspects. But two of them were later released.
Separately, chairman of the Social Movement of Betawi Culture,
H. Sofyan Mutardo, said that the FBR was an illegal Betawi
organization, as they were not a member of the Betawi Forum; an
authorized body that oversees all of Betawi's organization.
"We are greatly humiliated and enraged by their actions --
they have hurt the reputation of the Betawi people," said Sofyan,
who was also a subdistrict chief of Srengseng Sawah, South
Jakarta.
Sofyan added that the Forum urged FBR to discard the
organization.
On Thursday, after the meeting with Komnas HAM executives,
Wardah gave a speech before the eviction victims, with some 10
police officers guarding the compound. She had requested the
police to close the gate, fearing of an attack by the FBR.
But police ignored her warning.
Minutes later, seven buses packed with FBR members arrived and
they proceeded to viciously attack people inside the compound,
according to eyewitnesses.
Some of them, wielding wooden sticks and swords, struck the
people on their heads, while others kicked women and children.
"Where is Wardah?" they shouted at their cowering victims, who
were trying to fend off the blows.
One of the attackers saw Wardah fall to the ground. He ran up
to her and put his machete to her neck. Some Komnas HAM and
security personnel rushed to her rescue.
"I could not believe that this violence could be taking place
just after I had demanded that people give up such repugnant
methods," Asmara Nababan, secretary general of Komnas HAM, said.
The FBR members then let Wardah go, and left the Komnas HAM
grounds before a truckload of police arrived.